Investors are not magic bullets

Mqondisi Dube | Wednesday May 7, 2025 06:00

The road to privatising clubs has proved long and arduous contrary to common belief that it will be the panacea to all challenges facing local teams. Most clubs have tried to bring on board what are commonly referred to as investors, with clubs in most instances ceding 80% stake to the new owners while the remaining 20% has always been left to the society. The society here refers to supporters and it has not been clear what role they play in the administration of the club or what exactly it entails by them holding the remaining equity. Under such an arrangement, the expectation is that if the club's expenditure is P100,000 per month, the investor contributes P80,000 while the remaining P20,000 comes from the society. Whether this arrangement has really worked is highly debatable judging by case studies of failed partnerships across the domestic league.

Township Rollers, Extension Gunners, Mochudi Centre Chiefs and Gaborone United have had their fair struggles with this model. From being a purported magic bullet, the arrival of investors has instead presented a conundrum for local clubs. This could largely hinge on two factors. Firstly, Botswana football does not offer expected returns for the investors if there are no strategic partners (sponsors) on board. If one looks at the Rollers-Sebata deal, the investor was expected to part with around P8 million per season, and if he had run the duration of the arrangement, that would have been P40 million over five years. How much would have the investor recouped out of that amount? Was it possible for the partner to even make profits?

Assuming Rollers would have won the Premier League five years in row, the team would have made P7 million from prize money, which currently stands at P1.4million for the champions. Let's suppose Rollers grosses P2 million per season from gate takings, that means the club will make around P10 million from ticket sales, and being liberal, say P5 million in merchandise sale over five years. Still that will not even give the investor back two thirds of what they put in, making it a risky business to run a football club. The arrangements that appear to work is where sponsors come on board, like when Rollers had the Stanbic partnership and the current situation at Gaborone United where there is Bank Gaborone as the main sponsor.

Secondly, there should be candid discussions around the role of a society in a team. Yes, there is this mantra that 'this is our team' but its elasticity under the prevailing circumstances has been severely tested. Can you not support a team if it's 100% owned by an investor? Some support foreign clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, etc, yet they are owned by private investors. If supporters do not want let go of their clubs, then they should be prepared to buy shares so that they contribute meaningfully to the growth and development of the team. Otherwise the society model is no longer in sync with operations of a modern day football club.